Fic: "Home is Where the Spirit Is" (Steve/Danny) Hawaii Five-0 PG-13
Title: "Home is Where the Heart Spirit Is"
Author: whogeek
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Characters/Pairings: Steve/Danny, Grace, Mary
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8842
Warnings: Sillyness, fluff, Steve is emotionally constipated, kinda-sorta-not-really character death?
Genre: Supernatural, AU, Fluff, a bit of H/C
Prompt/Summary: Steve is a SEAL who gets hurt and ends up in a coma, but his spirit leaves his body and goes back to his house. A year or so Danny Williams, newly divorced father of one moves into Steve's house and gets the crap scared out of him when a pissed off Spirit Steve makes his presence known. Cue ghostly arguments and hilarity and Danny trying to get Steve back to his actual body.
Author's Note: I finished this on my posting day, so any spelling/grammar problems are my own. Thanks to shanachie_quill for being there for me every step of the way (again), proddng me when needed (again), and being willing to beta after I've posted (which means I'll be going back through to find whatever problems I accidentally left) who beta'd for me after I posted (so all my mistakes and extraneous commas are removed), and emocezi for the occasional prodding. Also, it's really hard for me to get my muses to talk when I can't poke and prod them until they're annoyed enough that talking is less painful than continued poking.
The first thing Steve notices is that something is wrong. He’s not sure what, or how he knows, but it’s there. It’s when he opens his eyes and sees what appears to be his old room that the wrongness resolves itself. This is certainly his old room; the color of the walls and the dent in the wall beside the window from when he threw a football at it are obvious enough. But everything is gone. His bed, all the posters from his walls, the desk and chair, his sports gear, his dresser. It’s just an empty room with deep green walls.
Steve makes his way out into the hall; wary and confused. Mary’s door is hanging open, just as empty. He walks down the hall, sticking his head into the bathroom (empty, not even the shower curtain) and his dad’s room. The whole upper floor is cleared out, nothing that belongs to his family left.
A noise downstairs draws his attention and he heads down the stairs quickly. He’s not surprised to see the entirety of the first floor empty. What is surprising is Mary, pacing and talking on a cell phone. Last Steve knew she was living it up in LA. “Look, I can’t sell it. I need you to find someone to rent it. Preferably someone who will be responsible and not destroy the place. No college kids or whatnot. A family would be best. No, that’s great! Okay, as soon as they can... tomorrow? Sure, that’ll be fine. 5:30? Yeah, I can do that. When does he want...” Mary sighs, a heavy sound. “No, no. That’s fine. Oh, and, if you try and pull something like that again? I will sue your pants off, got it? Good.”
“Mary....” Steve breathes the name out, almost not daring to believe she’s actually there.
Mary hangs up and glares down at the phone for a moment. “Fucker.” She pushes her phone back into her pocket and turns to look around the house and Steve wants to wrap his arms around her and not let go when her shoulders slump. She looks so different from the angry young girl she’d been the last time he’d seen her, getting on a plane to LA she didn’t want to be on. Now she’s a competent young woman, looking classy and important.
With another sigh Mary turns and heads for the door. Steve steps down off the stairs, intending to pull her into a hug when she passes right through his body. He knows his jaw is hanging open as he turns to stare at his sister. Mary is shivering a little, looking around as though confused. She lets out a little ‘huh’ noise before walking out the door, leaving Steve standing gobsmacked in the empty living room.
The click of the door closing and the scrape of the deadbolt sliding home snaps Steve into action and he leaps through the door, somehow knowing he can. Mary is already heading towards the car parked in the driveway and Steve sprints towards her. “Mary. Mary! Come on, listen to me, I’m here, Mary, please!” Steve watches hopelessly as she climbs into her car and backs out of the drive.
He stumbles after her, feeling more off balance than after their mother died. Mary turns her car towards the city and drives away down the street. Steve reaches the end of the driveway, some crazy notion that he can run after her, when he seems to bounce backwards off a solid wall at the edge of the property. He scrambles back to the boundary, pressing his hands to it and watching until Mary’s car is out of sight.
Three days later, he’s been through every room in the house, including the garage and the attic, and found nothing but dust, a few old crayons and markers, a wooden spoon, a garden trowel, two screwdrivers (both Phillips heads), a pair of rusty pliers, and a handful of screws, nuts and nails. He’s also found that he can’t go past the edge of the property at all. Any attempts only bounced him backwards, sometimes with enough force to knock him over, once with enough force to push him back into the house.
So the sound of a key in the lock and the front door opening comes as a surprise to Steve. He quickly makes his way downstairs, walking softly even though he knows he doesn’t actually need to anymore. By the time he reaches the last step a short, blonde haole in a button-down and tie is striding casually out of the kitchen. The gun and badge on his belt tell Steve the guy is a cop.
Suddenly the guy pulls his gun and has it trained on him, blue eyes fierce, and Steve wishes he had his gun. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my house?”
“Your house? What do you mean, your house?”
“I mean my house. The house I am renting from a very nice young woman so I have a good place to live and someplace I won’t feel ashamed to have my daughter visit. Now, answer the damn questions. Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”
“Mary... she’s renting it? She didn’t sell it?”
“Well obviously. I cannot actually afford this place if I were to buy it outright. And the rent is surprisingly reasonable.” The cop shakes his head as though trying to re-focus. “Stop avoiding the questions. Who. Are. You.”
Steve grinds his teeth together. “Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett.”
The cop blinks, startled. “But...” His gun drops, just a little. “But Steve McGarrett is in a coma at Tripler. Has been for almost eight months now.” Steve drops down to sit on the stairs, stunned. He’s in a coma. He’s not actually here, he’s in a coma, at Tripler. He’s not dead then. He looks up and startles badly when he sees those blue eyes suddenly so close to him. “Easy, you kinda... flickered there.”
The cop’s face is pale, scared but determined to help someone in distress, and he’s re-holstered his weapon. “I’m not dead.”
“What?”
“If I’m in a coma, I’m not actually dead. I thought I was dead.”
“Congratulations? That doesn’t explain how you’re here when you’re...” He waves one hand outward, as though to indicate half the island. “there.”
“I don’t know, all I know is that three days ago I... woke up here. And...Mary walked right through me. I kinda figured at that point that I was... y’know, dead.”
The cop’s eyes are sympathetic. “Well, good news, you’re not actually dead. Just...” He grimaces. “Walkabout.”
Steve looks at him, amused. “‘Walkabout’? Seriously? That’s the way you choose to describe what’s happening with me?”
“Shut up. You’re a ghost. You don’t get to poke fun at my choice of words.”
“Do I at least get to know what your name is? Seeing as you will be living in my house for the foreseeable future?”
“Detective Danny Williams.” Danny straightens up. “You’re not going to do that...flickering thing again, are you? It’s kinda disturbing.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not sure how I did it in the first place.”
“Awesome. House comes with complimentary confused ghost.”
Steve bristles at that. “Look, if you really have that much of a problem...”
Danny is quick to interrupt him. “No, I don’t have a problem with it. You’re clearly not angry, you’re not trying to hurt me or run me out of the house, you’re actually kinda friendly, in an awkward, doesn’t really get social interactions kind of way. Besides, it’ll be... an experience. And at least I’ll have someone to talk to when I don’t have Grace.”
He stares warily at Danny for a moment before something tugs at his attention. There’s a voice, faint, but there. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Someone’s talking. You don’t hear it?”
“Steve, no one is talking except us.”
“Shhhhh.” Steve turns his head, trying to pinpoint the sound. It’s faint, but there.
”...moving in today. I think you’d like him. He’s from New Jersey, nice, loud and opinionated. He moved here because his ex-wife got married and moved here with their daughter. It’s cute. He’s been living in this tiny little apartment while he’s been looking for a better place to live. He wants Grace to have a nice place to stay when he’s got her. It feels weird, knowing that someone else is living in our house. I just, I couldn’t stay there. Not after dad... well. So, that temp job has turned into a full-time job offer. Apparently, the last secretary they had was really incompetent. It’s weird, working full time. It’s... refreshing. It’s steady, but it’s not really a bad thing. I always figured I’d have some crazy, wild job. But I like it. I get to spend time out by the beach, meet a lot of people, and I do get to spend quite a bit of time out on the water.” A beeping interrupts her. “Oh, I’ve got to go. Lunch break’s over.” Then there’s the faintest pressure of lips against his cheek, and Mary’s voice whispering in his ear. “Love you big brother. Wake up soon.”
Steve opens his eyes slowly, reaching up to feel the spot on his cheek where he’d felt Mary’s lips. “You ok? You went see-through there.”
“Yeah, I... I’m fine.” He’s not sure why he doesn’t tell Danny that he could hear his sister. “Shouldn’t you be working now?”
Danny glances at his watch and then curses. “Yeah, I’ve got to run. Look, I’ve got movers coming in later today once I get done with my shift. Try not to scare any of them if they get here early, okay?”
Without waiting for a response, Danny is out the door, locking it and moments later Steve hears an engine start and then roar away from the house.
Danny doesn’t come back for several hours, and just like he said, the movers show up before he does. It isn’t much longer before Danny arrives.
Steve does his best to stay out of sight until one of the movers manages to startle him and walks right through him. After that he doesn’t bother, even going out of his way to see how much he can annoy Danny, who is apparently the only person who can see or hear him. Steve amuses himself by waving his hands through the movers at random moments, seeing how many of them stumble in reaction.
Danny glares at him whenever the movers aren’t looking and Steve just grins at him. “You’re the only one who can see or hear me. Considering Mary walked through me and just shivered, I’m pretty sure I’m just registering as cold to them.”
Danny’s phone ringing interrupts them, screeching out the violin theme from “Psycho” and Danny curses and silences the phone.
“Not gonna get that?” The question comes from Steve and one of the movers.
“No, no I am not going to get that. And I’m not paying you to ask questions about my phone calls.”
“Oh, come on, I wanna know who gets the ‘Psycho’ theme! Now you’ve got me curious. I’m going to find out one way or another.”
Danny glowers, but can’t respond with the movers around without looking like he’s crazy. Before he can do more than that the “Psycho” theme rings out again. Danny sighs and picks up. “Yes dear?” The way his face changes when the person on the other end responds is amazing and Steve finds himself just staring at the way he lights up, something lurching in his chest. “Heeeeey, monkey. I thought it was your mom calling. No, no, it’s fine. Yeah, the movers are getting everything moved in. No, they haven’t started bringing your things in yet. Did you decide which room you want to use? The yellow one? All right, that’ll be your room then. You want to paint it at all? No? Ok. Alright, I’ll see you this weekend, we’ll get your room set up then. Danno loves you, too, monkey.” He hangs up and turns to one of the movers, shoving the phone back in his pocket. “Anything that says ‘Grace’ goes in the yellow room upstairs, got it?”
“Sure. Not a problem, brah. We’re just about to get to all the bedroom things. Your stuff goes in the master, yeah?”
“Yes.”
“You want us to put the beds together?”
Danny startles at that. “You do that?”
“Yeah. Anything that had to be taken apart for transport we’ll put it back together for you. And if you want furniture arranged a certain way we’ll do that before we leave. We’re a full service moving company, brah.”
“That’s fantastic. One of the best things I’ve heard all day.”
Danny gets caught up in getting everything put where he wants it after that and Steve falls back to watch him as he directs the movers to organize the house the way he wants it. It takes a few hours before the last box is in and the movers pile into their truck and leave. Danny collapses down onto the couch, sighing heavily. Steve steps back into the room and carefully sits on the couch too, half-wondering if he’ll just sink right through it. “So. Danno?”
Danny jumps. “Jeezus, I’d forgotten all about you. Where the hell have you been?”
Steve shrugs. “Watching. So, Danno?”
“Don’t. Do not even...”
Steve falls quiet. “You don’t get along with your ex?”
“We get along fine, when we’re not actually talking to each other, and when she’s not trying to keep my daughter from me.” Steve nods. “You ever been married and divorced?”
“Nope. Never got the chance, really. I kinda figured it would happen after I got done with the SEALs. Now I guess it’ll never happen.”
Danny rolls his head on the back of the couch to look at Steve. “Kind of hard to form a relationship when the only one who can interact with you is a divorced Jersey cop who followed his daughter to Hawaii?”
Steve smiles bitterly. “Something like that.”
“Why don’t you just go back to your body? Now that you know you’re not actually dead.”
Steve shrugs. “I don’t know how.”
Danny falls quiet for a bit. “They say people in comas can sometimes hear when people talk to them. And that the stronger the emotional connection, the more likely the person in the coma is to wake up.”
Steve tries not to tense up, but it’s a close thing. “I don’t really have a strong emotional connection with anyone.”
“Mary said she visits you every two or three days, whenever she can really. I think she misses you.”
“It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. And we were... drifting apart even before then.” Steve fidgets, something he hasn’t done since basic. “Where... where’s my dad?”
Danny sucks in a breath. “God, you don’t know.” He sits up, leaning forward so he can look right at Steve. “He died. Four months ago. He suspected Governor Jameson of corruption and he was starting to prove it. There were only a few people at HPD he trusted, including me. The corruption stretched through a good portion of the department. He only trusted me because I was new, didn’t have established connections to anyone. He proved it, but... it cost him his life. He went down a hero though, cleared several people’s names, pinned the right charges on the right people. A lot of people owe him their lives and a lot of people owe him for clearing their names and getting them back on the force. We’re still finding the network he uncovered with the research he did.”
Steve feels like he’s been run over by a truck. His dad is gone. Mary is all he’s got left now. “He’s dead?”
“Yeah. He talked about you, actually. All the time. He was so proud of you. Of what you were doing. He said he wished he’d been able to tell you everything.”
Steve scrubs his hands over his face. “I need a drink.”
“I don’t think ghosts can get drunk. Besides, I don’t really have anything right now.”
“Fuck.” Steve wishes he could just disappear and a moment later Danny jumps up off the couch.
“Steve? Steve! Hey, where’d you go? Steve!” Danny looks around wildly before sighing and shaking his head. “Great, now he can disappear on me. Fantastic.”
Danny turns and heads up the stairs, presumably to go and crash into bed, and Steve stays where he is, sitting on the couch and thinking about what Danny just told him.
~~~~~~~~~
The week passes fairly uneventfully. Danny slowly unpacks the boxes in the master bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. The empty boxes end up in a pile out on the lanai, tucked up under the roof-line to keep them from getting soaked and soggy when it rains.
Steve finds he enjoys egging Danny into long-winded diatribes about everything from pineapple on pizza (It should be criminal! Pizza is dough, sauce, and mozz. Fruit on pizza is just wrong on so many levels.) to how Jersey is so much better than Hawaii (I like cities. Skyscrapers, cars, a few parks. None of this ridiculous jungle and dirt tracks being called roads.) to the fact that he wears a tie in Hawaii (It’s professional attire. I like to look like a professional, thank you very much.).
Steve finds he’s smiling more than he has since his mother’s death. “I still want to know about the whole ‘Danno’ thing.”
Danny throws his hands up, box-cutter clutched tightly in one hand. “Fine, all right! When Grace was little she couldn’t say my name right; all that came out was ‘Danno.’ That’s it. ‘Danno, Danno, Danno.’ Okay? Are you happy now?”
Steve grins. “It’s cute. I like it.”
“Oh, fantastic. The ghost likes my daughter’s nickname for me.”
“Come on, Danno, cheer up. Tomorrow’s Friday, right?”
Danny smiles and Steve smiles through the now-familiar lurching in his chest at the way it lights up the other man’s face. “Yes, yes, it is. I get Grace to myself for the whole weekend. And don’t call me ‘Danno.’ And you had better not scare my little girl.”
“I wouldn’t do that. Besides what are the chances that she’ll actually see me?”
They fall quiet for a moment, the only sound the soft thud of Danny putting books in the bookcase in the living room. “I still think you should just go back to your body. It can’t be that hard.”
Steve sighs. This argument is old and familiar already. “I don’t know how, okay? Just... leave it.”
Danny lifts his hands up, palms out. “Okay, okay. It’s just... now you know...”
“Danny.” Steve’s voice is hard, cutting through Danny’s sentence before he disappears.
Danny curses, as he does every time Steve disappears before turning back to shelving the books.
~~~~~~~~~~
Steve finds himself waiting anxiously in the kitchen on Friday afternoon. He knows Danny picks Grace up from school on his weekends, and that he actually has the afternoon and this weekend off to spend time with her, and he can’t help the way he paces around the room.
The key turning in the lock draws his attention and he stops, staring at the door to the living room and worried that any movement will give him away. He hears the thumping of small shoes being kicked off, and then socked feet thump into the kitchen.
Steve has seen pictures of Grace, Danny has them all over the house, but he’s still startled by her appearance. She’s wearing a school uniform, dark-blonde hair pulled into a neat braid down the back of her head and brown eyes sparkling with excitement. She gets three steps into the kitchen before she stops, staring right at Steve. “Danno?”
“Yeah, monkey?”
“Why is there a man in the kitchen?”
There’s a moment of silence before Steve and Danny speak at the same time, Danny moving to stand in the doorway. “You can see me?” “You can see him?”
“Of course. He’s right there.” Grace points unerringly at Steve.
Steve and Danny look at each other over Grace’s head. “Grace, this is Steve McGarrett.”
Grace stares at Steve, who wishes he could just disappear but that would be a very bad idea right now. “Mr. McGarrett’s Steve?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“But... Mr. McGarrett said his Steve was in a coma.”
Danny sighs and crouches down, turning Grace so she’s looking at him. “Grace...”
Steve interrupts before Danny can say anything further, drawing their attention. “I’m not really here. I’m... well, I’m basically a ghost right now.”
Grace’s eyes are big and round, almost scared. “Danno?”
Danny sighs, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Yeah. Steve, do...” He twirls one hand “One of your ghosty things.”
“One of my ghosty things? Really, Danny?”
“Just... do it, okay”
Steve throws his hands up. The banter has dispelled the worst of his anxiety and he feels a little more relaxed now. “Fine. One ghosty thing coming right up.” With that Steve turns and steps through the kitchen table, stopping when he’s standing in the middle of it. “See. Here, but not really.”
“Are you going to hurt us?” Grace presses closer to Danny, peering out at Steve.
“No, nothing like that. I’m just... stuck.”
“Why don’t you just go back?”
Steve sighs and steps out of the table, crouching down with Danny to be on Grace’s level. “I don’t know how. Until I figure it out, I’m stuck here. I hope you don’t mind.”
Grace reaches out, gasping a little when her fingers pass through Steve’s cheek. “You’re really not gonna hurt us?”
“Really not.” Steve smiles, trying to be reassuring.
It seems to work, because Grace smiles back at him, and something inside him melts a little.
~~~~~~~~~~
It doesn’t take long for them to fall into a pattern. Danny wakes up, makes himself coffee, they argue, and Danny heads to work.
Steve spends the majority of his days wandering around the house. He finds that he can move things around the house, but the larger the object the more it drains him. The day he manages to move the couch he spends the rest of the day lying exhausted half-through the couch. Danny freaks out; first over the moved couch, and then the fact that all he can see of Steve are his legs protruding from the couch.
Each evening Danny complains about work, about suspects and the hijinks of his young new partner, one Kono Kalakaua. Steve heckles him about it, getting Danny wound up into rants of epic proportions. His favorite by far is the pineapple-on-pizza rant.
He keeps practicing at moving things, which usually induces more ranting. Especially when he took the pot from the coffee maker and put it on Grace’s bed. Danny’s ranting that day convinces Steve to leave the coffee maker alone.
When Danny has Grace they play board games. Steve finds it easier and easier to move the pieces each time. Grace loves the stories Steve tells her; modified tales of the ops he went on as a SEAL that are acceptable for young ears. Each time Grace leaves, he wishes he could hug her goodbye.
Every few days Mary visits his body at Tripler, and Steve listens as she talks about everything from catching some waves with Kono (who she met through Danny, and Kono asked if she’d like to catch some waves together sometime, so now they’re pretty close surf buddies) to the haoles that come to learn to surf and get annoyed and want refunds when they aren’t immediately out on the water, to the kids classes she does for the afterschool groups.
It’s been several months since Danny moved in, and he has to leave Grace alone for a few hours, an emergency at work that he’s been called in for, and Steve promises to watch out for her. They’re sitting in her room as she reads to him when a sound downstairs has Steve on full alert. “Grace, I need you to be very quiet for me, can you do that? If you get scared, I want you to hide under your bed, okay?”
Grace nods, and Steve drops down through the floor, quickly searching the house for the source of the noise. A couple of guys in bright, Hawaiian shirts, board shorts and flip flops are peeking through the doors to the lanai. One of the guys crouches down and picks the lock, opening the door to let both of them in.
Anger surges through Steve. No way are these two idiots going to hurt Danny and Grace like this. The first thing in his hand is a plastic strainer left on the drying rack beside the sink and it bounces off the first guy’s head. “The hell?” They look around, but the kitchen is apparently empty, and so he steps further into the room.
“Wrong move,” Steve mutters to himself. A cookbook Danny left open on the counter hits the second guy low in the stomach.
“The fuck is going on here?” A small pot smacks him in the shoulder and the other guy gets hit by a larger one to the knee.
“Man, I don’t like this house! Let’s just forget it and get out of here!”
“You can. I’m gonna get something out of this!” He moves towards the rest of the house but has to jump backwards as three pots hit the area in front of him, the third clipping him as it sails past before a pineapple thumps him in the gut.
“I’m out of here! You’re on your own!” The second guy flees out the still open door, leaving his friend on his own.
“CHICKEN!” Steve grins, more a feral bearing of teeth than anything else, and reaches for the knife block. The first two thunk into the wood inches from the guy. “Shit!” He finally turns tail to follow his partner, knives thunking into the wood behind him, chasing him out of the house.
Once he’s satisfied the would-be thieves are gone, Steve hurries back upstairs to Grace’s room. “Grace?”
“Are they gone?” Grace’s voice is coming from under the bed, and Steve grins as she pokes her head out from under the bedskirt.
“Yeah, they’re gone.”
Grace pulls her little cell phone out and brings it to her ear. “Steve says they’re gone, Danno.” Steve breaths a sigh of relief. He hadn’t even thought about having her call 911 or Danny. “Okay, see you soon. Love you, Danno.” Grace closes the phone and crawls out from under the bed, standing up and brushing the dust and dirt off herself.
“Come on, Grace, I’ll need your help to put everything back where it goes.”
“Okay. How’d you get them to leave? They can’t see you.”
Steve smiles down at her. “I threw stuff at them. A house is a lot less appealing as a target when you keep getting hit by things when there’s no one around to throw them.”
Grace giggles at that. “It’s a good thing I can see you then.”
“Yes it is.” Grace cleans the pots and puts the pineapple and the cookbook back, but Steve makes her leave the knives where they are. Danny will yell at him for throwing them in the first place, but if he lets Grace wash them on her own the fallout will be horrific. Grace is just putting the last pot on the drying rack when the front door bangs open.
“Grace!? Steve!”
“In the kitchen, Danno!” Danny follows Grace’s voice into the kitchen, sweeping her off the step stool she’d been using to reach the sink, hugging her tightly.
“Thank god, you’re okay.”
“Daaaannooooooo,” Grace whines and Danny sets her back on the step stool. “I’m fine. Steve told me to hide under my bed and scared them off.”
Danny turns his attention to Steve now. “How?”
Steve shrugs. “I threw things at them.”
“You threw things? What things? You can throw things now?”
“Yeah, I can throw stuff. If it’s small-ish. And it was mostly pots and pans.”
Grace pipes up suddenly. “And the knives.”
Danny turns to look at her, before turning back to Steve. “The knives?”
Steve rubs the back of his neck. “I didn’t hit them. Just enough to scare them off. See.” He gestures at the wall by the door to the lanai, still riddled with knives.
“Steven. There are knives. In my wall.”
“Technically it’s still Mary’s wall. And mine.”
“I am the one living here! I pay rent! I payed my security deposit! Having knife-holes in what is effectively my wall means I am responsible for fixing it or I won’t get my security deposit back. You cannot simply throw knives at people! Or at walls! Especially when you will not be the one fixing said walls! You are a menace! A maniac! Normal people do not throw knives at intruders! They call the police!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, next time there are thieves when it’s just Grace and me here, I’ll let them ransack the place instead of scaring them away.” Steve crosses his arms over his chest. “And I didn’t have Grace pull them out of the wall because I didn’t want her getting hurt after I got rid of the thieves.”
Danny deflates at that, grumbling under his breath as he moves to pull the knives from the wall. “Menace.” He keeps grumbling as he starts washing the knives and putting them back in the knife block. Steve and Grace share a look behind his back. “I’m glad you’re both okay.” Steve opens his mouth to protest that he’d be okay anyways but Danny holds up one hand. “I know, you can’t be hurt because you’re a ghost. Doesn’t mean I’m not glad you’re okay.”
Steve ducks his head and grins, warmth suffusing his chest at the fact that Danny was worried about them both. “I wasn’t going to let them hurt Grace.”
“For which I am grateful. I just wish you didn’t feel the need to throw knives at them. So... thank you for preventing them from hurting my daughter.”
Steve beams at that. “You’re welcome.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary comes by the house at least once a month and after each visit Steve ends up arguing with Danny about telling her that he’s there. This month Danny has Grace, who adores Mary. Steve can’t hold back his smile as he watches Mary interact with Grace. Danny nearly talks himself blue in the face when Mary suggests that she and Kono teach Grace how to surf.
Danny is scowling when Mary finally leaves with a promise to Grace that Kono will be able to convince Danny that surfing lessons are a good idea.
Danny waits until Grace heads up to her room to work on some homework before turning to look at the room in general. “Would you stop hiding when your sister comes to visit?” Steve fades into view, and Danny’s sharp blue eyes land on him. “You’d be a lot happier if you would let me tell Mary you’re here.”
“And end up scaring her? No thanks.”
“You’re not going to scare her. She’s a lot stronger than you give her credit for and I think she’d really like knowing that you’re here.”
“I can’t even talk to her. Anything I wanted to tell her would have to go through you!”
“And what, you think I wouldn’t help you have an actual conversation with your sister, who you haven’t talked to in years?! She’s your family! She’s all you’ve got left and you’re too scared to talk to her!”
“I’m not having this argument again. We’ve been over this.” Steve turns and stalks through a wall before willing himself upwards to end up in Grace’s room. Grace scrambles into the room a moment later and stares at Steve with huge sad eyes. Steve sighs, shoulders drooping. “Let me guess, you were eavesdropping on that.”
Grace nods solemnly. “Why don’t you want to tell Miss Mary that you’re here?”
Steve sighs and runs one hand over his face before dropping onto Grace’s bed. “Grace, I haven’t talked to my sister for years. I don’t want to scare her away because she can’t see me.”
“She’s your sister though!”
“I know she is. She also can’t see me. I can’t talk to her by myself. I don’t want to lose her too.”
“You’ll still have us.”
Steve can’t help but smile at that. “Grace, if I could hug you, I would right now.”
Grace grins up at him. “I’m sure you’ll be able to hug me one day. You’ll figure it out.”
Steve finds he can’t respond to that with how tight his chest has gotten. Danny and Grace have already gotten so far into his heart he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to get them out. Or if he even wants to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Danny doesn’t drop the argument. The next day they argue about Danny telling Mary all the way out to the camaro.
“Your sister is worried. She misses you. And you are so dead set against me telling her that, oh, your brother is hanging around your old house as a ghost and my daughter and I can see and hear him.”
“Like that’s going to help anything! I’m a ghost, Danny. I can’t talk to her. If she knows I’m a ghost, what’s to stop her from thinking there’s no point in keeping me on life support? Then what happens to me?”
“And you think I wouldn’t tell her not to give up on you?”
“Why the hell should that deter her?”
Danny starts the car. “I cannot believe I am still having this argument with you. Kono says she’s close to giving up on you. It’s been so long and the doctors don’t have high hopes if you don’t wake up soon.”
Steve is stunned as Danny starts pulling out of the driveway, not even noticing that he’s moving with the car until the invisible barrier at the edge of the property bounces him back, practically tossing him all the way into the house.
The weird tingling running across his skin is an almost painful sensation as he lies on the floor in the kitchen. Seconds later Danny bursts back into the house. “That’s why you haven’t gone back!”
Steve turns to stare at him. “I can’t leave.”
“Hold on a minute.” Danny pulls out his phone, makes a quick call that Steve doesn’t pay attention to before turning back to Steve. “I’ve got another hour before i’ve got to go to work now. So talk. Why can’t you leave?”
“How the hell should I know? Every time I try to leave the property I get... bounced back.”
“But, why would you be... tied to the house? Why wouldn’t you be tied to your body?”
Steve finally pushes up, watching Danny pace. “Considering the last time I was here was when my dad sent Mary and me away? Damned if I know.”
“You really can’t leave.” Danny drops down into one of the chairs. “You can’t just go back to your body because you’re trapped here.”
“Yeah.”
“Would you have just... walked away if you could? If you weren’t trapped here, would you have even been here?”
Steve shrugs at that. “Probably not.”
Danny stares at him silently for a moment. “I never would have met you. You wouldn’t have been here to save Grace from those robbers. We never would have argued about... about pineapple on pizza. You would never have tried to tell me all the ways I could have gotten someone to talk or made an arrest better. You would never have been all scandalized that I don’t swim.”
Steve’s chest tightens with each ‘what if’ that Danny spouts out, and not for the first time he wishes he could touch the other man. “Danny...”
“I’m... I’m glad you are here. Not that you’re.... well, trapped here, but... “
“I’m glad I’m here, too.” Steve pushes to his feet and steps over to Danny. “I still wish I could leave the property, but... I’m glad I was here to meet you and Grace.”
Steve reaches out, laying his hand over one of Danny’s, careful not to let his hand pass through the other man’s hand. Danny sucks in a breath. “Steve.”
The surprise in Danny’s voice is too much, and Steve yanks back, willing himself invisible and bolting from the room, Danny’s shocked shout following him.
~~~~~~~~~
Steve avoids Danny after that, staying invisible even when Danny turns as though to talk to him, shoulders slumping when Steve isn’t there.
Grace asks about him when Danny has her for the night. Steve almost reveals himself then, steps into the room to talk to her before stopping short and backing out again.
Steve sulks around the house, following Danny when the other man is home and standing as far into the ocean as he can the rest of the time.
A couple days after Grace’s evening over Steve feels someone touch his body. It’s a weird sensation, one he’s gotten used to for the most part as nurses and doctors poke and prod at him, clean him, check him over. This is more like when Mary visits him, a hand running down his arm before sliding into his hand. Not squeezing, just resting there.
Steve focuses on the sensation, hand clenching shut around the sensation, as if he can hold it there. The hand isn’t Mary’s. Mary’s hand is constantly playing with his fingers. This hand is still except for the thumb running slowly against the back of Steve’s hand.
After a moment there’s a voice, familiar even through the filter of distance and his own ears. “God, this is so weird. Look, I know you can’t leave the house, but I’m pretty sure you can hear me, because, well, call it a hunch. I hope you do, but... at the same time I hope you don’t, because this is embarrassing enough as it is. I like you, okay? Despite the fact that you’re totally insane, I mean, pineapple on pizza?”
Steve smiles at the tangent, surprised when he realizes he’s moved from the beach in the backyard to the sidewalk out front. He shakes his head and refocuses on the hand in his and the voice in his ears.
“But... I really do like you and I want to be able to touch you and not have my hand pass right through. And this totally doesn’t count, by the way.” Danny does squeeze his hand then and Steve lurches towards the sensation. “I don’t want the phantom sensation of you. I, God help me, I want you to take Grace swimming because I know you’re not going to let anything happen to my little girl and I want you.”
Steve is letting the sensations pull him along, and he loses track of things until he finds himself standing in a hospital room. He’s looking down at himself, looking thin and pale in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and feeding tubes and IVs. Danny is sitting in the chair beside his bed, staring at his knees, one hand wrapped around Steve’s.
He’s only there a second before something tugs and Steve only has the feel of Danny’s hand in his, warm and slightly calloused and thumb still gently stroking. Steve grabs at the hand, annoyed when he doesn’t get any sort of reaction. He tries again, thinking himself through the motions of curling his fingers around something, grasping it.
It takes a while, but eventually he has his fingers curled around Danny’s and he squeezes. Danny gasps at that, but doesn’t pull away. “Steve? Steve, are you... can you …” He huffs out a breath. “Can you squeeze twice for yes and once for no?”
Steve flexes long-disused muscles, squeezing twice. Danny lets out an explosive breath, squeezing back. He wants to see Danny, see his expressions and so he focuses on opening his eyes. It’s easier to do this and in a few seconds the ceiling of his hospital room swims into focus. He squeezes Danny’s hand and tugs and a moment later Danny is hovering over him.
“Hey there. I should call the doctors in.” Danny’s free hand reaches out and Steve tightens his grip on the other hand. “Ow! Wow, okay, I guess not yet. I will have to call eventually.”
Steve squeezes twice, and damn just this much is already exhausting him, but he doesn’t want to lose Danny’s hand in his.
“All right. Three squeezes when you’re ready for me to call then.” Danny doesn’t sit down. Stays standing beside the bed until Steve gives three quick squeezes. He smiles and reaches for the call button. Steve expects Danny to let go then but he doesn’t, so Steve hangs on while the doctors come in and check him over. One nurse tries to separate their hands, but Steve clings to Danny, and the way his heart rate spikes deters a repeat.
The room clears out again after a while and Danny steps closer. “So, welcome back to the land of the living.”
A smile tugs at Steve’s lips and suddenly Danny is beaming down at him. “I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll come back. I need to call your sister, too.” Danny moves to pull his hand away but Steve tightens his grip as much as he can. “Hey, none of that. I’ll come back. Promise. I’ll see about bringing Grace, too. Get some sleep. You’ve got a long road ahead of you.”
Steve frowns as Danny pulls away, but he lets it happen. The other man does have a job to get back to and the fact that Danny promised to come back lets him relax some. Steve doubts he’ll sleep, but he’s exhausted after his return to his body and within a few moments he’s asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
The respirator comes out a couple days later and the feeding tube a few days after that. Steve pushes the doctors about when he’ll be allowed to start physical therapy. He’s been in a coma for 17 months, 9 of which he spent as a ghost hanging around his old house. Steve has never done well with monotony and just because his body is weak from the long months of disuse he wants to be up and moving.
Mary bursts into tears the first time he wakes up while she’s there before launching herself at him and wrapping her arms around him. “Steve. I almost didn’t believe it when Danny told me that you woke up. God, there’s so much to tell you.”
“Mary. I need to tell you something myself. I’ve been at the house.”
Mary shakes her head, looking bewildered. “That’s impossible. You haven’t left the hospital since you got here.”
“Yeah, but... I’ve been... a ghost. I woke up in my old bedroom one day and I went downstairs and... you were there. You were on the phone with someone, trying to get someone who would rent the house. You walked right through me. I thought I was dead.”
Mary has one hand over her mouth now, looking shell-shocked. “How?”
“I don’t know. But... Danny and Grace could see me. They kept trying to convince me to let them tell you about me. I didn’t want to scare you.” Mary has tears rolling down her cheeks now, and Steve lifts one shaky hand to wipe them away. She grabs his hand, pressing it to her cheek. “I didn’t want to lose you too.”
She laughs, high and shaky. “I thought I already had. I thought... and then Dad... and I was so lost, but... you were still alive, if only because of...” She gestures at the room before continuing. “And I just... I started coming to talk to you, because I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and it helped, so I kept doing it, and I cleaned out the house, and got a job, and found an apartment, because you’re all I’ve got now, and even if you weren’t ever going to say anything back it was nice to be able to share my life with you again.” Mary chokes out a sob, smiling through the tears. “You’ve always been my big brother.”
Steve tugs as much as he can, and Mary folds down against him, his arm sliding across her shoulders as she sobs and laughs into his chest. “I could hear you. Every time you visited me after I woke up at the house. I could hear you and feel your hand in mine. You always played with my fingers.” Mary lets out a startled laugh. “It was nice. I’m... I’m so damn proud of you.” He squeezes her shoulders at that. “And... You don’t have to stop. Now that I’m awake. I want to hear more about Kono, and your students, and the crazy tourists, and your ridiculous boss and his ridiculous flirting with the guy who works at the glass-bottom boat tours.” He can feel her smiling, and rubs her back as she relaxes. “I’m still your big brother. Always will be.”
Mary turns her head to look up at him. “You really could hear me.”
“Yeah, I really could.” They stay like that and Mary talks to him until he falls asleep again.
Over the following month Steve slowly starts regaining his strength. It’s a long and painful process, but he has visitors almost daily; either Danny stopping by at lunch (sometimes with Kono, sometimes without) or in the afternoon with Grace, who always brings him a drawing or a card, or Mary coming to talk about anything and everything. Kono’s cousin Chin tags along one day, and it turns out Chin was Jack McGarrett’s partner in the HPD, and even owes his badge to Jack’s work.
The end of the month brings about a visit that includes Mary, Danny, and Grace. Mary is brandishing a stack of papers and Danny is pushing a wheelchair. Grace is grinning from her seat in the chair, a small duffle on her lap.
“Come on, McGarrett. Up and at ‘em. We’re here to spring you from this joint,” Danny says.
Steve grins. “I’m getting discharged?”
Mary’s smile lights up the room. “Got all the paperwork filled out and everything.”
“We brought you some clothes!” Grace bounds out of the chair, dropping the duffle on the side of the bed as Steve pushes himself upright.
“Well thank you very much, Ms. Gracie.” Grace giggles. “How about you gather all the drawings and cards you brought me while I go get dressed?”
“Ok!” Steve smiles as she starts carefully collecting and stacking the things in his room, sliding off the bed and heading for the small attached bathroom. It’s a little difficult to get dressed, but he manages it before moving back out into the room.
“I’m not going to use the wheelchair. I can walk,” Steve protests.
Danny snorts. “Right. Hospital regulations. Sit in the chair. I promised the nurse that you wouldn’t walk out of here.”
“Come on, Steve! You get to ride in a wheelchair! That’s awesome.” Steve cannot resist the glee on Grace’s face and eases down into the chair.
“Push on, Daniel. Ow!” Danny jabs his fingers into Steve’s back at that.
“You aren’t funny. You aren’t funny at all.” Danny wheels Steve around and out the door. Mary falls into step beside him, reaching down to take his hand. Grace bounces along on his other side carrying the duffle, now filled with the personal effects from his room.
Steve finally relaxes fully when they’re all piled in Mary’s car, Danny and Grace in the backseat. A very small part of him almost didn’t believe that he would ever get out of the hospital. “So, I don’t have a lot of room to spare at my apartment, so Danny has offered to let you stay at the house until you’ve gotten yourself back up to normal,” Mary comments.
Steve stares at Mary, who ignores him in favor of staring at the road as she drives. “Chill, babe. I offered. You don’t have to try and drill a hole in your sister’s head about it,” Danny says from behind him.
“You’ll get to come stay with us again. Just like you did when you were a ghost.” Grace bounces, clearly excited about this, and Steve can feel himself tensing up again.
Mary and Danny are quiet the rest of the drive and Grace fills the car with happy chatter.
Danny is fidgety until Mary leaves, but only relaxes some until after his ex-wife comes to pick up Grace, leaving the two of them alone. “So.” Steve almost flinches, but by the look Danny sends his way he wasn’t nearly as successful as he had hoped. “Steven, if something’s bothering you I need you to tell me about it. I cannot always tell what’s wrong.”
Steve shifts uncomfortably. “It’s just that. Aren’t you tired of me being around? I don’t want to intrude.”
“Steve, I offered. And I got used to you ‘being around’ when you were a ghost. I’ve missed being able to talk to you all the time since you..” Danny waves one hand in Steve’s direction and Steve finds himself grinning at the familiar motion.
“Since I...” Steve copies the motion, raising his eyebrows expectantly. “Is there an end to that sentence?”
“Do not mock me. Mocking will not be tolerated. Mocking will mean I won’t be making pancakes for breakfast.” Steve grins at Danny and steps forward into Danny’s space. “What are you doing? You, enormous neanderthal, personal space! This is something that normal people mmmph!”
Steve shuts Danny up in the way he’s wanted to for a long time, catching Danny’s face between his hands and pressing their lips together in a kiss. It only takes a moment before Danny is kissing back, and Steve is not surprised by the intent in Danny’s kiss, but the sweetness of it is surprising. Danny’s hands are two points of heat, blazingly hot through his clothes where they rest on his hips. Steve moans into the kiss and Danny’s hands tighten on his hips. The next second he ruins the moment when his legs give out on him.
Danny catches him, and chuckles. “Easy there. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the fun stuff.”
Steve sighs and presses his face into the crook of Danny’s neck. “Sorry.”
“Hey, you were in a coma for over a year. It’s reasonable that we won’t be doing anything really strenuous until you’re ready for it.” Danny runs one hand through Steve’s hair and starts moving them towards the stairs. “I’ll wait until you’re strong enough.”
They make their way up to the second floor and Steve has to stop at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall, Danny’s shoulders keeping him up on the other side. “Seems like all we’ve done is wait.”
“Then you had better make it damn well worth it.” Steve chuckles at that. “I made up the guest bed, but... I’d like it if you, ah, slept with me.”
“I have a feeling the guest bedroom won’t be used anytime soon.” Danny grins at that and Steve has to lean in and kiss it from his lips. “At least, not by me.”
“Good. That’s good. Ready to move?”
“Ready to get into bed.”
“Come on then.” Danny pulls him off the wall and they work towards the bedroom, where Steve promptly drops onto the bed. Danny pulls off his shoes and helps him out of the t-shirt and gym shorts before coaxing him down onto the mattress. Steve watches as Danny strips and climbs into the opposite side of the bed. He frowns and rolls over to pull Danny towards him, tugging until Danny is tucked up against him. “Why am I the little spoon?”
“Because you’re shorter than me.”
“Right. Of course.” They’re quiet for a while before Danny speaks again. “We’re going to have to tell Mary.”
Steve grimaces and presses his face against Danny’s hair. “I already did. She... she said she was happy for me. For us.”
“Oh. I uh... wow. You two have gotten a lot closer over the past month, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. It’s nice, having a family again. I’ve got Mary and you and Grace. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have any of it. Thanks.”
Danny laces their fingers together and squeezes. “You’re welcome. And welcome home.”
Author: whogeek
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Characters/Pairings: Steve/Danny, Grace, Mary
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8842
Warnings: Sillyness, fluff, Steve is emotionally constipated, kinda-sorta-not-really character death?
Genre: Supernatural, AU, Fluff, a bit of H/C
Prompt/Summary: Steve is a SEAL who gets hurt and ends up in a coma, but his spirit leaves his body and goes back to his house. A year or so Danny Williams, newly divorced father of one moves into Steve's house and gets the crap scared out of him when a pissed off Spirit Steve makes his presence known. Cue ghostly arguments and hilarity and Danny trying to get Steve back to his actual body.
Author's Note: I finished this on my posting day, so any spelling/grammar problems are my own. Thanks to shanachie_quill for being there for me every step of the way (again), proddng me when needed (again), and being willing to beta after I've posted (which means I'll be going back through to find whatever problems I accidentally left) who beta'd for me after I posted (so all my mistakes and extraneous commas are removed), and emocezi for the occasional prodding. Also, it's really hard for me to get my muses to talk when I can't poke and prod them until they're annoyed enough that talking is less painful than continued poking.
The first thing Steve notices is that something is wrong. He’s not sure what, or how he knows, but it’s there. It’s when he opens his eyes and sees what appears to be his old room that the wrongness resolves itself. This is certainly his old room; the color of the walls and the dent in the wall beside the window from when he threw a football at it are obvious enough. But everything is gone. His bed, all the posters from his walls, the desk and chair, his sports gear, his dresser. It’s just an empty room with deep green walls.
Steve makes his way out into the hall; wary and confused. Mary’s door is hanging open, just as empty. He walks down the hall, sticking his head into the bathroom (empty, not even the shower curtain) and his dad’s room. The whole upper floor is cleared out, nothing that belongs to his family left.
A noise downstairs draws his attention and he heads down the stairs quickly. He’s not surprised to see the entirety of the first floor empty. What is surprising is Mary, pacing and talking on a cell phone. Last Steve knew she was living it up in LA. “Look, I can’t sell it. I need you to find someone to rent it. Preferably someone who will be responsible and not destroy the place. No college kids or whatnot. A family would be best. No, that’s great! Okay, as soon as they can... tomorrow? Sure, that’ll be fine. 5:30? Yeah, I can do that. When does he want...” Mary sighs, a heavy sound. “No, no. That’s fine. Oh, and, if you try and pull something like that again? I will sue your pants off, got it? Good.”
“Mary....” Steve breathes the name out, almost not daring to believe she’s actually there.
Mary hangs up and glares down at the phone for a moment. “Fucker.” She pushes her phone back into her pocket and turns to look around the house and Steve wants to wrap his arms around her and not let go when her shoulders slump. She looks so different from the angry young girl she’d been the last time he’d seen her, getting on a plane to LA she didn’t want to be on. Now she’s a competent young woman, looking classy and important.
With another sigh Mary turns and heads for the door. Steve steps down off the stairs, intending to pull her into a hug when she passes right through his body. He knows his jaw is hanging open as he turns to stare at his sister. Mary is shivering a little, looking around as though confused. She lets out a little ‘huh’ noise before walking out the door, leaving Steve standing gobsmacked in the empty living room.
The click of the door closing and the scrape of the deadbolt sliding home snaps Steve into action and he leaps through the door, somehow knowing he can. Mary is already heading towards the car parked in the driveway and Steve sprints towards her. “Mary. Mary! Come on, listen to me, I’m here, Mary, please!” Steve watches hopelessly as she climbs into her car and backs out of the drive.
He stumbles after her, feeling more off balance than after their mother died. Mary turns her car towards the city and drives away down the street. Steve reaches the end of the driveway, some crazy notion that he can run after her, when he seems to bounce backwards off a solid wall at the edge of the property. He scrambles back to the boundary, pressing his hands to it and watching until Mary’s car is out of sight.
Three days later, he’s been through every room in the house, including the garage and the attic, and found nothing but dust, a few old crayons and markers, a wooden spoon, a garden trowel, two screwdrivers (both Phillips heads), a pair of rusty pliers, and a handful of screws, nuts and nails. He’s also found that he can’t go past the edge of the property at all. Any attempts only bounced him backwards, sometimes with enough force to knock him over, once with enough force to push him back into the house.
So the sound of a key in the lock and the front door opening comes as a surprise to Steve. He quickly makes his way downstairs, walking softly even though he knows he doesn’t actually need to anymore. By the time he reaches the last step a short, blonde haole in a button-down and tie is striding casually out of the kitchen. The gun and badge on his belt tell Steve the guy is a cop.
Suddenly the guy pulls his gun and has it trained on him, blue eyes fierce, and Steve wishes he had his gun. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my house?”
“Your house? What do you mean, your house?”
“I mean my house. The house I am renting from a very nice young woman so I have a good place to live and someplace I won’t feel ashamed to have my daughter visit. Now, answer the damn questions. Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”
“Mary... she’s renting it? She didn’t sell it?”
“Well obviously. I cannot actually afford this place if I were to buy it outright. And the rent is surprisingly reasonable.” The cop shakes his head as though trying to re-focus. “Stop avoiding the questions. Who. Are. You.”
Steve grinds his teeth together. “Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett.”
The cop blinks, startled. “But...” His gun drops, just a little. “But Steve McGarrett is in a coma at Tripler. Has been for almost eight months now.” Steve drops down to sit on the stairs, stunned. He’s in a coma. He’s not actually here, he’s in a coma, at Tripler. He’s not dead then. He looks up and startles badly when he sees those blue eyes suddenly so close to him. “Easy, you kinda... flickered there.”
The cop’s face is pale, scared but determined to help someone in distress, and he’s re-holstered his weapon. “I’m not dead.”
“What?”
“If I’m in a coma, I’m not actually dead. I thought I was dead.”
“Congratulations? That doesn’t explain how you’re here when you’re...” He waves one hand outward, as though to indicate half the island. “there.”
“I don’t know, all I know is that three days ago I... woke up here. And...Mary walked right through me. I kinda figured at that point that I was... y’know, dead.”
The cop’s eyes are sympathetic. “Well, good news, you’re not actually dead. Just...” He grimaces. “Walkabout.”
Steve looks at him, amused. “‘Walkabout’? Seriously? That’s the way you choose to describe what’s happening with me?”
“Shut up. You’re a ghost. You don’t get to poke fun at my choice of words.”
“Do I at least get to know what your name is? Seeing as you will be living in my house for the foreseeable future?”
“Detective Danny Williams.” Danny straightens up. “You’re not going to do that...flickering thing again, are you? It’s kinda disturbing.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not sure how I did it in the first place.”
“Awesome. House comes with complimentary confused ghost.”
Steve bristles at that. “Look, if you really have that much of a problem...”
Danny is quick to interrupt him. “No, I don’t have a problem with it. You’re clearly not angry, you’re not trying to hurt me or run me out of the house, you’re actually kinda friendly, in an awkward, doesn’t really get social interactions kind of way. Besides, it’ll be... an experience. And at least I’ll have someone to talk to when I don’t have Grace.”
He stares warily at Danny for a moment before something tugs at his attention. There’s a voice, faint, but there. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Someone’s talking. You don’t hear it?”
“Steve, no one is talking except us.”
“Shhhhh.” Steve turns his head, trying to pinpoint the sound. It’s faint, but there.
”...moving in today. I think you’d like him. He’s from New Jersey, nice, loud and opinionated. He moved here because his ex-wife got married and moved here with their daughter. It’s cute. He’s been living in this tiny little apartment while he’s been looking for a better place to live. He wants Grace to have a nice place to stay when he’s got her. It feels weird, knowing that someone else is living in our house. I just, I couldn’t stay there. Not after dad... well. So, that temp job has turned into a full-time job offer. Apparently, the last secretary they had was really incompetent. It’s weird, working full time. It’s... refreshing. It’s steady, but it’s not really a bad thing. I always figured I’d have some crazy, wild job. But I like it. I get to spend time out by the beach, meet a lot of people, and I do get to spend quite a bit of time out on the water.” A beeping interrupts her. “Oh, I’ve got to go. Lunch break’s over.” Then there’s the faintest pressure of lips against his cheek, and Mary’s voice whispering in his ear. “Love you big brother. Wake up soon.”
Steve opens his eyes slowly, reaching up to feel the spot on his cheek where he’d felt Mary’s lips. “You ok? You went see-through there.”
“Yeah, I... I’m fine.” He’s not sure why he doesn’t tell Danny that he could hear his sister. “Shouldn’t you be working now?”
Danny glances at his watch and then curses. “Yeah, I’ve got to run. Look, I’ve got movers coming in later today once I get done with my shift. Try not to scare any of them if they get here early, okay?”
Without waiting for a response, Danny is out the door, locking it and moments later Steve hears an engine start and then roar away from the house.
Danny doesn’t come back for several hours, and just like he said, the movers show up before he does. It isn’t much longer before Danny arrives.
Steve does his best to stay out of sight until one of the movers manages to startle him and walks right through him. After that he doesn’t bother, even going out of his way to see how much he can annoy Danny, who is apparently the only person who can see or hear him. Steve amuses himself by waving his hands through the movers at random moments, seeing how many of them stumble in reaction.
Danny glares at him whenever the movers aren’t looking and Steve just grins at him. “You’re the only one who can see or hear me. Considering Mary walked through me and just shivered, I’m pretty sure I’m just registering as cold to them.”
Danny’s phone ringing interrupts them, screeching out the violin theme from “Psycho” and Danny curses and silences the phone.
“Not gonna get that?” The question comes from Steve and one of the movers.
“No, no I am not going to get that. And I’m not paying you to ask questions about my phone calls.”
“Oh, come on, I wanna know who gets the ‘Psycho’ theme! Now you’ve got me curious. I’m going to find out one way or another.”
Danny glowers, but can’t respond with the movers around without looking like he’s crazy. Before he can do more than that the “Psycho” theme rings out again. Danny sighs and picks up. “Yes dear?” The way his face changes when the person on the other end responds is amazing and Steve finds himself just staring at the way he lights up, something lurching in his chest. “Heeeeey, monkey. I thought it was your mom calling. No, no, it’s fine. Yeah, the movers are getting everything moved in. No, they haven’t started bringing your things in yet. Did you decide which room you want to use? The yellow one? All right, that’ll be your room then. You want to paint it at all? No? Ok. Alright, I’ll see you this weekend, we’ll get your room set up then. Danno loves you, too, monkey.” He hangs up and turns to one of the movers, shoving the phone back in his pocket. “Anything that says ‘Grace’ goes in the yellow room upstairs, got it?”
“Sure. Not a problem, brah. We’re just about to get to all the bedroom things. Your stuff goes in the master, yeah?”
“Yes.”
“You want us to put the beds together?”
Danny startles at that. “You do that?”
“Yeah. Anything that had to be taken apart for transport we’ll put it back together for you. And if you want furniture arranged a certain way we’ll do that before we leave. We’re a full service moving company, brah.”
“That’s fantastic. One of the best things I’ve heard all day.”
Danny gets caught up in getting everything put where he wants it after that and Steve falls back to watch him as he directs the movers to organize the house the way he wants it. It takes a few hours before the last box is in and the movers pile into their truck and leave. Danny collapses down onto the couch, sighing heavily. Steve steps back into the room and carefully sits on the couch too, half-wondering if he’ll just sink right through it. “So. Danno?”
Danny jumps. “Jeezus, I’d forgotten all about you. Where the hell have you been?”
Steve shrugs. “Watching. So, Danno?”
“Don’t. Do not even...”
Steve falls quiet. “You don’t get along with your ex?”
“We get along fine, when we’re not actually talking to each other, and when she’s not trying to keep my daughter from me.” Steve nods. “You ever been married and divorced?”
“Nope. Never got the chance, really. I kinda figured it would happen after I got done with the SEALs. Now I guess it’ll never happen.”
Danny rolls his head on the back of the couch to look at Steve. “Kind of hard to form a relationship when the only one who can interact with you is a divorced Jersey cop who followed his daughter to Hawaii?”
Steve smiles bitterly. “Something like that.”
“Why don’t you just go back to your body? Now that you know you’re not actually dead.”
Steve shrugs. “I don’t know how.”
Danny falls quiet for a bit. “They say people in comas can sometimes hear when people talk to them. And that the stronger the emotional connection, the more likely the person in the coma is to wake up.”
Steve tries not to tense up, but it’s a close thing. “I don’t really have a strong emotional connection with anyone.”
“Mary said she visits you every two or three days, whenever she can really. I think she misses you.”
“It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. And we were... drifting apart even before then.” Steve fidgets, something he hasn’t done since basic. “Where... where’s my dad?”
Danny sucks in a breath. “God, you don’t know.” He sits up, leaning forward so he can look right at Steve. “He died. Four months ago. He suspected Governor Jameson of corruption and he was starting to prove it. There were only a few people at HPD he trusted, including me. The corruption stretched through a good portion of the department. He only trusted me because I was new, didn’t have established connections to anyone. He proved it, but... it cost him his life. He went down a hero though, cleared several people’s names, pinned the right charges on the right people. A lot of people owe him their lives and a lot of people owe him for clearing their names and getting them back on the force. We’re still finding the network he uncovered with the research he did.”
Steve feels like he’s been run over by a truck. His dad is gone. Mary is all he’s got left now. “He’s dead?”
“Yeah. He talked about you, actually. All the time. He was so proud of you. Of what you were doing. He said he wished he’d been able to tell you everything.”
Steve scrubs his hands over his face. “I need a drink.”
“I don’t think ghosts can get drunk. Besides, I don’t really have anything right now.”
“Fuck.” Steve wishes he could just disappear and a moment later Danny jumps up off the couch.
“Steve? Steve! Hey, where’d you go? Steve!” Danny looks around wildly before sighing and shaking his head. “Great, now he can disappear on me. Fantastic.”
Danny turns and heads up the stairs, presumably to go and crash into bed, and Steve stays where he is, sitting on the couch and thinking about what Danny just told him.
~~~~~~~~~
The week passes fairly uneventfully. Danny slowly unpacks the boxes in the master bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. The empty boxes end up in a pile out on the lanai, tucked up under the roof-line to keep them from getting soaked and soggy when it rains.
Steve finds he enjoys egging Danny into long-winded diatribes about everything from pineapple on pizza (It should be criminal! Pizza is dough, sauce, and mozz. Fruit on pizza is just wrong on so many levels.) to how Jersey is so much better than Hawaii (I like cities. Skyscrapers, cars, a few parks. None of this ridiculous jungle and dirt tracks being called roads.) to the fact that he wears a tie in Hawaii (It’s professional attire. I like to look like a professional, thank you very much.).
Steve finds he’s smiling more than he has since his mother’s death. “I still want to know about the whole ‘Danno’ thing.”
Danny throws his hands up, box-cutter clutched tightly in one hand. “Fine, all right! When Grace was little she couldn’t say my name right; all that came out was ‘Danno.’ That’s it. ‘Danno, Danno, Danno.’ Okay? Are you happy now?”
Steve grins. “It’s cute. I like it.”
“Oh, fantastic. The ghost likes my daughter’s nickname for me.”
“Come on, Danno, cheer up. Tomorrow’s Friday, right?”
Danny smiles and Steve smiles through the now-familiar lurching in his chest at the way it lights up the other man’s face. “Yes, yes, it is. I get Grace to myself for the whole weekend. And don’t call me ‘Danno.’ And you had better not scare my little girl.”
“I wouldn’t do that. Besides what are the chances that she’ll actually see me?”
They fall quiet for a moment, the only sound the soft thud of Danny putting books in the bookcase in the living room. “I still think you should just go back to your body. It can’t be that hard.”
Steve sighs. This argument is old and familiar already. “I don’t know how, okay? Just... leave it.”
Danny lifts his hands up, palms out. “Okay, okay. It’s just... now you know...”
“Danny.” Steve’s voice is hard, cutting through Danny’s sentence before he disappears.
Danny curses, as he does every time Steve disappears before turning back to shelving the books.
~~~~~~~~~~
Steve finds himself waiting anxiously in the kitchen on Friday afternoon. He knows Danny picks Grace up from school on his weekends, and that he actually has the afternoon and this weekend off to spend time with her, and he can’t help the way he paces around the room.
The key turning in the lock draws his attention and he stops, staring at the door to the living room and worried that any movement will give him away. He hears the thumping of small shoes being kicked off, and then socked feet thump into the kitchen.
Steve has seen pictures of Grace, Danny has them all over the house, but he’s still startled by her appearance. She’s wearing a school uniform, dark-blonde hair pulled into a neat braid down the back of her head and brown eyes sparkling with excitement. She gets three steps into the kitchen before she stops, staring right at Steve. “Danno?”
“Yeah, monkey?”
“Why is there a man in the kitchen?”
There’s a moment of silence before Steve and Danny speak at the same time, Danny moving to stand in the doorway. “You can see me?” “You can see him?”
“Of course. He’s right there.” Grace points unerringly at Steve.
Steve and Danny look at each other over Grace’s head. “Grace, this is Steve McGarrett.”
Grace stares at Steve, who wishes he could just disappear but that would be a very bad idea right now. “Mr. McGarrett’s Steve?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“But... Mr. McGarrett said his Steve was in a coma.”
Danny sighs and crouches down, turning Grace so she’s looking at him. “Grace...”
Steve interrupts before Danny can say anything further, drawing their attention. “I’m not really here. I’m... well, I’m basically a ghost right now.”
Grace’s eyes are big and round, almost scared. “Danno?”
Danny sighs, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Yeah. Steve, do...” He twirls one hand “One of your ghosty things.”
“One of my ghosty things? Really, Danny?”
“Just... do it, okay”
Steve throws his hands up. The banter has dispelled the worst of his anxiety and he feels a little more relaxed now. “Fine. One ghosty thing coming right up.” With that Steve turns and steps through the kitchen table, stopping when he’s standing in the middle of it. “See. Here, but not really.”
“Are you going to hurt us?” Grace presses closer to Danny, peering out at Steve.
“No, nothing like that. I’m just... stuck.”
“Why don’t you just go back?”
Steve sighs and steps out of the table, crouching down with Danny to be on Grace’s level. “I don’t know how. Until I figure it out, I’m stuck here. I hope you don’t mind.”
Grace reaches out, gasping a little when her fingers pass through Steve’s cheek. “You’re really not gonna hurt us?”
“Really not.” Steve smiles, trying to be reassuring.
It seems to work, because Grace smiles back at him, and something inside him melts a little.
~~~~~~~~~~
It doesn’t take long for them to fall into a pattern. Danny wakes up, makes himself coffee, they argue, and Danny heads to work.
Steve spends the majority of his days wandering around the house. He finds that he can move things around the house, but the larger the object the more it drains him. The day he manages to move the couch he spends the rest of the day lying exhausted half-through the couch. Danny freaks out; first over the moved couch, and then the fact that all he can see of Steve are his legs protruding from the couch.
Each evening Danny complains about work, about suspects and the hijinks of his young new partner, one Kono Kalakaua. Steve heckles him about it, getting Danny wound up into rants of epic proportions. His favorite by far is the pineapple-on-pizza rant.
He keeps practicing at moving things, which usually induces more ranting. Especially when he took the pot from the coffee maker and put it on Grace’s bed. Danny’s ranting that day convinces Steve to leave the coffee maker alone.
When Danny has Grace they play board games. Steve finds it easier and easier to move the pieces each time. Grace loves the stories Steve tells her; modified tales of the ops he went on as a SEAL that are acceptable for young ears. Each time Grace leaves, he wishes he could hug her goodbye.
Every few days Mary visits his body at Tripler, and Steve listens as she talks about everything from catching some waves with Kono (who she met through Danny, and Kono asked if she’d like to catch some waves together sometime, so now they’re pretty close surf buddies) to the haoles that come to learn to surf and get annoyed and want refunds when they aren’t immediately out on the water, to the kids classes she does for the afterschool groups.
It’s been several months since Danny moved in, and he has to leave Grace alone for a few hours, an emergency at work that he’s been called in for, and Steve promises to watch out for her. They’re sitting in her room as she reads to him when a sound downstairs has Steve on full alert. “Grace, I need you to be very quiet for me, can you do that? If you get scared, I want you to hide under your bed, okay?”
Grace nods, and Steve drops down through the floor, quickly searching the house for the source of the noise. A couple of guys in bright, Hawaiian shirts, board shorts and flip flops are peeking through the doors to the lanai. One of the guys crouches down and picks the lock, opening the door to let both of them in.
Anger surges through Steve. No way are these two idiots going to hurt Danny and Grace like this. The first thing in his hand is a plastic strainer left on the drying rack beside the sink and it bounces off the first guy’s head. “The hell?” They look around, but the kitchen is apparently empty, and so he steps further into the room.
“Wrong move,” Steve mutters to himself. A cookbook Danny left open on the counter hits the second guy low in the stomach.
“The fuck is going on here?” A small pot smacks him in the shoulder and the other guy gets hit by a larger one to the knee.
“Man, I don’t like this house! Let’s just forget it and get out of here!”
“You can. I’m gonna get something out of this!” He moves towards the rest of the house but has to jump backwards as three pots hit the area in front of him, the third clipping him as it sails past before a pineapple thumps him in the gut.
“I’m out of here! You’re on your own!” The second guy flees out the still open door, leaving his friend on his own.
“CHICKEN!” Steve grins, more a feral bearing of teeth than anything else, and reaches for the knife block. The first two thunk into the wood inches from the guy. “Shit!” He finally turns tail to follow his partner, knives thunking into the wood behind him, chasing him out of the house.
Once he’s satisfied the would-be thieves are gone, Steve hurries back upstairs to Grace’s room. “Grace?”
“Are they gone?” Grace’s voice is coming from under the bed, and Steve grins as she pokes her head out from under the bedskirt.
“Yeah, they’re gone.”
Grace pulls her little cell phone out and brings it to her ear. “Steve says they’re gone, Danno.” Steve breaths a sigh of relief. He hadn’t even thought about having her call 911 or Danny. “Okay, see you soon. Love you, Danno.” Grace closes the phone and crawls out from under the bed, standing up and brushing the dust and dirt off herself.
“Come on, Grace, I’ll need your help to put everything back where it goes.”
“Okay. How’d you get them to leave? They can’t see you.”
Steve smiles down at her. “I threw stuff at them. A house is a lot less appealing as a target when you keep getting hit by things when there’s no one around to throw them.”
Grace giggles at that. “It’s a good thing I can see you then.”
“Yes it is.” Grace cleans the pots and puts the pineapple and the cookbook back, but Steve makes her leave the knives where they are. Danny will yell at him for throwing them in the first place, but if he lets Grace wash them on her own the fallout will be horrific. Grace is just putting the last pot on the drying rack when the front door bangs open.
“Grace!? Steve!”
“In the kitchen, Danno!” Danny follows Grace’s voice into the kitchen, sweeping her off the step stool she’d been using to reach the sink, hugging her tightly.
“Thank god, you’re okay.”
“Daaaannooooooo,” Grace whines and Danny sets her back on the step stool. “I’m fine. Steve told me to hide under my bed and scared them off.”
Danny turns his attention to Steve now. “How?”
Steve shrugs. “I threw things at them.”
“You threw things? What things? You can throw things now?”
“Yeah, I can throw stuff. If it’s small-ish. And it was mostly pots and pans.”
Grace pipes up suddenly. “And the knives.”
Danny turns to look at her, before turning back to Steve. “The knives?”
Steve rubs the back of his neck. “I didn’t hit them. Just enough to scare them off. See.” He gestures at the wall by the door to the lanai, still riddled with knives.
“Steven. There are knives. In my wall.”
“Technically it’s still Mary’s wall. And mine.”
“I am the one living here! I pay rent! I payed my security deposit! Having knife-holes in what is effectively my wall means I am responsible for fixing it or I won’t get my security deposit back. You cannot simply throw knives at people! Or at walls! Especially when you will not be the one fixing said walls! You are a menace! A maniac! Normal people do not throw knives at intruders! They call the police!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, next time there are thieves when it’s just Grace and me here, I’ll let them ransack the place instead of scaring them away.” Steve crosses his arms over his chest. “And I didn’t have Grace pull them out of the wall because I didn’t want her getting hurt after I got rid of the thieves.”
Danny deflates at that, grumbling under his breath as he moves to pull the knives from the wall. “Menace.” He keeps grumbling as he starts washing the knives and putting them back in the knife block. Steve and Grace share a look behind his back. “I’m glad you’re both okay.” Steve opens his mouth to protest that he’d be okay anyways but Danny holds up one hand. “I know, you can’t be hurt because you’re a ghost. Doesn’t mean I’m not glad you’re okay.”
Steve ducks his head and grins, warmth suffusing his chest at the fact that Danny was worried about them both. “I wasn’t going to let them hurt Grace.”
“For which I am grateful. I just wish you didn’t feel the need to throw knives at them. So... thank you for preventing them from hurting my daughter.”
Steve beams at that. “You’re welcome.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary comes by the house at least once a month and after each visit Steve ends up arguing with Danny about telling her that he’s there. This month Danny has Grace, who adores Mary. Steve can’t hold back his smile as he watches Mary interact with Grace. Danny nearly talks himself blue in the face when Mary suggests that she and Kono teach Grace how to surf.
Danny is scowling when Mary finally leaves with a promise to Grace that Kono will be able to convince Danny that surfing lessons are a good idea.
Danny waits until Grace heads up to her room to work on some homework before turning to look at the room in general. “Would you stop hiding when your sister comes to visit?” Steve fades into view, and Danny’s sharp blue eyes land on him. “You’d be a lot happier if you would let me tell Mary you’re here.”
“And end up scaring her? No thanks.”
“You’re not going to scare her. She’s a lot stronger than you give her credit for and I think she’d really like knowing that you’re here.”
“I can’t even talk to her. Anything I wanted to tell her would have to go through you!”
“And what, you think I wouldn’t help you have an actual conversation with your sister, who you haven’t talked to in years?! She’s your family! She’s all you’ve got left and you’re too scared to talk to her!”
“I’m not having this argument again. We’ve been over this.” Steve turns and stalks through a wall before willing himself upwards to end up in Grace’s room. Grace scrambles into the room a moment later and stares at Steve with huge sad eyes. Steve sighs, shoulders drooping. “Let me guess, you were eavesdropping on that.”
Grace nods solemnly. “Why don’t you want to tell Miss Mary that you’re here?”
Steve sighs and runs one hand over his face before dropping onto Grace’s bed. “Grace, I haven’t talked to my sister for years. I don’t want to scare her away because she can’t see me.”
“She’s your sister though!”
“I know she is. She also can’t see me. I can’t talk to her by myself. I don’t want to lose her too.”
“You’ll still have us.”
Steve can’t help but smile at that. “Grace, if I could hug you, I would right now.”
Grace grins up at him. “I’m sure you’ll be able to hug me one day. You’ll figure it out.”
Steve finds he can’t respond to that with how tight his chest has gotten. Danny and Grace have already gotten so far into his heart he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to get them out. Or if he even wants to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Danny doesn’t drop the argument. The next day they argue about Danny telling Mary all the way out to the camaro.
“Your sister is worried. She misses you. And you are so dead set against me telling her that, oh, your brother is hanging around your old house as a ghost and my daughter and I can see and hear him.”
“Like that’s going to help anything! I’m a ghost, Danny. I can’t talk to her. If she knows I’m a ghost, what’s to stop her from thinking there’s no point in keeping me on life support? Then what happens to me?”
“And you think I wouldn’t tell her not to give up on you?”
“Why the hell should that deter her?”
Danny starts the car. “I cannot believe I am still having this argument with you. Kono says she’s close to giving up on you. It’s been so long and the doctors don’t have high hopes if you don’t wake up soon.”
Steve is stunned as Danny starts pulling out of the driveway, not even noticing that he’s moving with the car until the invisible barrier at the edge of the property bounces him back, practically tossing him all the way into the house.
The weird tingling running across his skin is an almost painful sensation as he lies on the floor in the kitchen. Seconds later Danny bursts back into the house. “That’s why you haven’t gone back!”
Steve turns to stare at him. “I can’t leave.”
“Hold on a minute.” Danny pulls out his phone, makes a quick call that Steve doesn’t pay attention to before turning back to Steve. “I’ve got another hour before i’ve got to go to work now. So talk. Why can’t you leave?”
“How the hell should I know? Every time I try to leave the property I get... bounced back.”
“But, why would you be... tied to the house? Why wouldn’t you be tied to your body?”
Steve finally pushes up, watching Danny pace. “Considering the last time I was here was when my dad sent Mary and me away? Damned if I know.”
“You really can’t leave.” Danny drops down into one of the chairs. “You can’t just go back to your body because you’re trapped here.”
“Yeah.”
“Would you have just... walked away if you could? If you weren’t trapped here, would you have even been here?”
Steve shrugs at that. “Probably not.”
Danny stares at him silently for a moment. “I never would have met you. You wouldn’t have been here to save Grace from those robbers. We never would have argued about... about pineapple on pizza. You would never have tried to tell me all the ways I could have gotten someone to talk or made an arrest better. You would never have been all scandalized that I don’t swim.”
Steve’s chest tightens with each ‘what if’ that Danny spouts out, and not for the first time he wishes he could touch the other man. “Danny...”
“I’m... I’m glad you are here. Not that you’re.... well, trapped here, but... “
“I’m glad I’m here, too.” Steve pushes to his feet and steps over to Danny. “I still wish I could leave the property, but... I’m glad I was here to meet you and Grace.”
Steve reaches out, laying his hand over one of Danny’s, careful not to let his hand pass through the other man’s hand. Danny sucks in a breath. “Steve.”
The surprise in Danny’s voice is too much, and Steve yanks back, willing himself invisible and bolting from the room, Danny’s shocked shout following him.
~~~~~~~~~
Steve avoids Danny after that, staying invisible even when Danny turns as though to talk to him, shoulders slumping when Steve isn’t there.
Grace asks about him when Danny has her for the night. Steve almost reveals himself then, steps into the room to talk to her before stopping short and backing out again.
Steve sulks around the house, following Danny when the other man is home and standing as far into the ocean as he can the rest of the time.
A couple days after Grace’s evening over Steve feels someone touch his body. It’s a weird sensation, one he’s gotten used to for the most part as nurses and doctors poke and prod at him, clean him, check him over. This is more like when Mary visits him, a hand running down his arm before sliding into his hand. Not squeezing, just resting there.
Steve focuses on the sensation, hand clenching shut around the sensation, as if he can hold it there. The hand isn’t Mary’s. Mary’s hand is constantly playing with his fingers. This hand is still except for the thumb running slowly against the back of Steve’s hand.
After a moment there’s a voice, familiar even through the filter of distance and his own ears. “God, this is so weird. Look, I know you can’t leave the house, but I’m pretty sure you can hear me, because, well, call it a hunch. I hope you do, but... at the same time I hope you don’t, because this is embarrassing enough as it is. I like you, okay? Despite the fact that you’re totally insane, I mean, pineapple on pizza?”
Steve smiles at the tangent, surprised when he realizes he’s moved from the beach in the backyard to the sidewalk out front. He shakes his head and refocuses on the hand in his and the voice in his ears.
“But... I really do like you and I want to be able to touch you and not have my hand pass right through. And this totally doesn’t count, by the way.” Danny does squeeze his hand then and Steve lurches towards the sensation. “I don’t want the phantom sensation of you. I, God help me, I want you to take Grace swimming because I know you’re not going to let anything happen to my little girl and I want you.”
Steve is letting the sensations pull him along, and he loses track of things until he finds himself standing in a hospital room. He’s looking down at himself, looking thin and pale in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and feeding tubes and IVs. Danny is sitting in the chair beside his bed, staring at his knees, one hand wrapped around Steve’s.
He’s only there a second before something tugs and Steve only has the feel of Danny’s hand in his, warm and slightly calloused and thumb still gently stroking. Steve grabs at the hand, annoyed when he doesn’t get any sort of reaction. He tries again, thinking himself through the motions of curling his fingers around something, grasping it.
It takes a while, but eventually he has his fingers curled around Danny’s and he squeezes. Danny gasps at that, but doesn’t pull away. “Steve? Steve, are you... can you …” He huffs out a breath. “Can you squeeze twice for yes and once for no?”
Steve flexes long-disused muscles, squeezing twice. Danny lets out an explosive breath, squeezing back. He wants to see Danny, see his expressions and so he focuses on opening his eyes. It’s easier to do this and in a few seconds the ceiling of his hospital room swims into focus. He squeezes Danny’s hand and tugs and a moment later Danny is hovering over him.
“Hey there. I should call the doctors in.” Danny’s free hand reaches out and Steve tightens his grip on the other hand. “Ow! Wow, okay, I guess not yet. I will have to call eventually.”
Steve squeezes twice, and damn just this much is already exhausting him, but he doesn’t want to lose Danny’s hand in his.
“All right. Three squeezes when you’re ready for me to call then.” Danny doesn’t sit down. Stays standing beside the bed until Steve gives three quick squeezes. He smiles and reaches for the call button. Steve expects Danny to let go then but he doesn’t, so Steve hangs on while the doctors come in and check him over. One nurse tries to separate their hands, but Steve clings to Danny, and the way his heart rate spikes deters a repeat.
The room clears out again after a while and Danny steps closer. “So, welcome back to the land of the living.”
A smile tugs at Steve’s lips and suddenly Danny is beaming down at him. “I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll come back. I need to call your sister, too.” Danny moves to pull his hand away but Steve tightens his grip as much as he can. “Hey, none of that. I’ll come back. Promise. I’ll see about bringing Grace, too. Get some sleep. You’ve got a long road ahead of you.”
Steve frowns as Danny pulls away, but he lets it happen. The other man does have a job to get back to and the fact that Danny promised to come back lets him relax some. Steve doubts he’ll sleep, but he’s exhausted after his return to his body and within a few moments he’s asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
The respirator comes out a couple days later and the feeding tube a few days after that. Steve pushes the doctors about when he’ll be allowed to start physical therapy. He’s been in a coma for 17 months, 9 of which he spent as a ghost hanging around his old house. Steve has never done well with monotony and just because his body is weak from the long months of disuse he wants to be up and moving.
Mary bursts into tears the first time he wakes up while she’s there before launching herself at him and wrapping her arms around him. “Steve. I almost didn’t believe it when Danny told me that you woke up. God, there’s so much to tell you.”
“Mary. I need to tell you something myself. I’ve been at the house.”
Mary shakes her head, looking bewildered. “That’s impossible. You haven’t left the hospital since you got here.”
“Yeah, but... I’ve been... a ghost. I woke up in my old bedroom one day and I went downstairs and... you were there. You were on the phone with someone, trying to get someone who would rent the house. You walked right through me. I thought I was dead.”
Mary has one hand over her mouth now, looking shell-shocked. “How?”
“I don’t know. But... Danny and Grace could see me. They kept trying to convince me to let them tell you about me. I didn’t want to scare you.” Mary has tears rolling down her cheeks now, and Steve lifts one shaky hand to wipe them away. She grabs his hand, pressing it to her cheek. “I didn’t want to lose you too.”
She laughs, high and shaky. “I thought I already had. I thought... and then Dad... and I was so lost, but... you were still alive, if only because of...” She gestures at the room before continuing. “And I just... I started coming to talk to you, because I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and it helped, so I kept doing it, and I cleaned out the house, and got a job, and found an apartment, because you’re all I’ve got now, and even if you weren’t ever going to say anything back it was nice to be able to share my life with you again.” Mary chokes out a sob, smiling through the tears. “You’ve always been my big brother.”
Steve tugs as much as he can, and Mary folds down against him, his arm sliding across her shoulders as she sobs and laughs into his chest. “I could hear you. Every time you visited me after I woke up at the house. I could hear you and feel your hand in mine. You always played with my fingers.” Mary lets out a startled laugh. “It was nice. I’m... I’m so damn proud of you.” He squeezes her shoulders at that. “And... You don’t have to stop. Now that I’m awake. I want to hear more about Kono, and your students, and the crazy tourists, and your ridiculous boss and his ridiculous flirting with the guy who works at the glass-bottom boat tours.” He can feel her smiling, and rubs her back as she relaxes. “I’m still your big brother. Always will be.”
Mary turns her head to look up at him. “You really could hear me.”
“Yeah, I really could.” They stay like that and Mary talks to him until he falls asleep again.
Over the following month Steve slowly starts regaining his strength. It’s a long and painful process, but he has visitors almost daily; either Danny stopping by at lunch (sometimes with Kono, sometimes without) or in the afternoon with Grace, who always brings him a drawing or a card, or Mary coming to talk about anything and everything. Kono’s cousin Chin tags along one day, and it turns out Chin was Jack McGarrett’s partner in the HPD, and even owes his badge to Jack’s work.
The end of the month brings about a visit that includes Mary, Danny, and Grace. Mary is brandishing a stack of papers and Danny is pushing a wheelchair. Grace is grinning from her seat in the chair, a small duffle on her lap.
“Come on, McGarrett. Up and at ‘em. We’re here to spring you from this joint,” Danny says.
Steve grins. “I’m getting discharged?”
Mary’s smile lights up the room. “Got all the paperwork filled out and everything.”
“We brought you some clothes!” Grace bounds out of the chair, dropping the duffle on the side of the bed as Steve pushes himself upright.
“Well thank you very much, Ms. Gracie.” Grace giggles. “How about you gather all the drawings and cards you brought me while I go get dressed?”
“Ok!” Steve smiles as she starts carefully collecting and stacking the things in his room, sliding off the bed and heading for the small attached bathroom. It’s a little difficult to get dressed, but he manages it before moving back out into the room.
“I’m not going to use the wheelchair. I can walk,” Steve protests.
Danny snorts. “Right. Hospital regulations. Sit in the chair. I promised the nurse that you wouldn’t walk out of here.”
“Come on, Steve! You get to ride in a wheelchair! That’s awesome.” Steve cannot resist the glee on Grace’s face and eases down into the chair.
“Push on, Daniel. Ow!” Danny jabs his fingers into Steve’s back at that.
“You aren’t funny. You aren’t funny at all.” Danny wheels Steve around and out the door. Mary falls into step beside him, reaching down to take his hand. Grace bounces along on his other side carrying the duffle, now filled with the personal effects from his room.
Steve finally relaxes fully when they’re all piled in Mary’s car, Danny and Grace in the backseat. A very small part of him almost didn’t believe that he would ever get out of the hospital. “So, I don’t have a lot of room to spare at my apartment, so Danny has offered to let you stay at the house until you’ve gotten yourself back up to normal,” Mary comments.
Steve stares at Mary, who ignores him in favor of staring at the road as she drives. “Chill, babe. I offered. You don’t have to try and drill a hole in your sister’s head about it,” Danny says from behind him.
“You’ll get to come stay with us again. Just like you did when you were a ghost.” Grace bounces, clearly excited about this, and Steve can feel himself tensing up again.
Mary and Danny are quiet the rest of the drive and Grace fills the car with happy chatter.
Danny is fidgety until Mary leaves, but only relaxes some until after his ex-wife comes to pick up Grace, leaving the two of them alone. “So.” Steve almost flinches, but by the look Danny sends his way he wasn’t nearly as successful as he had hoped. “Steven, if something’s bothering you I need you to tell me about it. I cannot always tell what’s wrong.”
Steve shifts uncomfortably. “It’s just that. Aren’t you tired of me being around? I don’t want to intrude.”
“Steve, I offered. And I got used to you ‘being around’ when you were a ghost. I’ve missed being able to talk to you all the time since you..” Danny waves one hand in Steve’s direction and Steve finds himself grinning at the familiar motion.
“Since I...” Steve copies the motion, raising his eyebrows expectantly. “Is there an end to that sentence?”
“Do not mock me. Mocking will not be tolerated. Mocking will mean I won’t be making pancakes for breakfast.” Steve grins at Danny and steps forward into Danny’s space. “What are you doing? You, enormous neanderthal, personal space! This is something that normal people mmmph!”
Steve shuts Danny up in the way he’s wanted to for a long time, catching Danny’s face between his hands and pressing their lips together in a kiss. It only takes a moment before Danny is kissing back, and Steve is not surprised by the intent in Danny’s kiss, but the sweetness of it is surprising. Danny’s hands are two points of heat, blazingly hot through his clothes where they rest on his hips. Steve moans into the kiss and Danny’s hands tighten on his hips. The next second he ruins the moment when his legs give out on him.
Danny catches him, and chuckles. “Easy there. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the fun stuff.”
Steve sighs and presses his face into the crook of Danny’s neck. “Sorry.”
“Hey, you were in a coma for over a year. It’s reasonable that we won’t be doing anything really strenuous until you’re ready for it.” Danny runs one hand through Steve’s hair and starts moving them towards the stairs. “I’ll wait until you’re strong enough.”
They make their way up to the second floor and Steve has to stop at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall, Danny’s shoulders keeping him up on the other side. “Seems like all we’ve done is wait.”
“Then you had better make it damn well worth it.” Steve chuckles at that. “I made up the guest bed, but... I’d like it if you, ah, slept with me.”
“I have a feeling the guest bedroom won’t be used anytime soon.” Danny grins at that and Steve has to lean in and kiss it from his lips. “At least, not by me.”
“Good. That’s good. Ready to move?”
“Ready to get into bed.”
“Come on then.” Danny pulls him off the wall and they work towards the bedroom, where Steve promptly drops onto the bed. Danny pulls off his shoes and helps him out of the t-shirt and gym shorts before coaxing him down onto the mattress. Steve watches as Danny strips and climbs into the opposite side of the bed. He frowns and rolls over to pull Danny towards him, tugging until Danny is tucked up against him. “Why am I the little spoon?”
“Because you’re shorter than me.”
“Right. Of course.” They’re quiet for a while before Danny speaks again. “We’re going to have to tell Mary.”
Steve grimaces and presses his face against Danny’s hair. “I already did. She... she said she was happy for me. For us.”
“Oh. I uh... wow. You two have gotten a lot closer over the past month, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. It’s nice, having a family again. I’ve got Mary and you and Grace. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have any of it. Thanks.”
Danny laces their fingers together and squeezes. “You’re welcome. And welcome home.”